3 Cocks

Commission for Spit Jacks Restaurant, Lauriston Road, Hackney, London E9

click here to visit Spitjacks Facebook page

Hoping to get some pictures soon, of the restaurant when its open & full of happy eaters

(It was closed when these were taken)

These cockerels were far bigger than anything I've done before, and, to be honest, 

I was a little nervous. 

This is my try at creating a stencil print version of a sketch by the artist, Guy Denning,

who drew it as a preliminary for his painting,

"We Shall Be Hypocrites"

click for bigger 

 

You can see Guy Denning's sketch at

 http://denningdrawing.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_01_archive.html 

 Its a picture that I return to, time & again,
 just to 'feel' it one one more time. 

The sketch is in charcoal & conté crayon, & doesn't exactly lend itself to spray paint, but I wanted a 'hand-made' version of this picture rather than the photo I had. 

Guy had sold the sketch before I first saw it.

Also, I just wanted to see if I could do it at all.  

I'm just pleased to have captured something of her expression. 

Anyway, Guy Denning's work is special, check it out here ... 

http://www.guydenning.org

Early Morning 
29th September 2011
Lower Dowdeswell, Gloucestershire, UK

... all sorts of ways

& then this one that I played with on the computer, trying to work out my colours ...

"Moonlight Ride"

photographically altered spray paint & stencil

(a colour scheme for tomorrow, straight out of the past)

"Mukanya"

No Man's Slave

stencils & spraycans, on card

"Crow"

above the void

"soul adventurer"

"over the canyon"

1st spray

spray paint, freehand & stencilled

Canada Common

A little (A4) cut made really as a test for a bigger one to follow.

This picture is a celebration of / elegy for the people & lifestyle that came to be known as 

New Age Travellers/Hippies/Medieval Brigands.

The crazed times, the laughs, the freedom, the horror, the self reliance, the learning-about-life.

I was only on the fringes of this, but it has touched my whole life. 

This picture is from the days of harassment & evictions, that followed the years of ease,

and is one I've wanted to make for a little while now

Live & Let Live

Andraste!

as always ... aerosol spray paint, freehand & stencilled

"The Queen of Mbira"

I'm going to meet Stella Chiweshe this week ... see her play & sing, and then get to play mbira with her. 

She was my introduction to mbira. I am so excited!

A friend bought me the Ndizvozvo 12" in the early 90s. It features Stella Chiweshe & The Earthquake Band. It made a BIG impact on me.

So, yesterday, in her honour, I cut a stencil & made a picture

mbira dza vadzimu 

(... the voice of the ancestors)

spraypainted pictures of the musical instrument that I love the best.  

I hope you can hear it too.

Dambatsoko

bottle-top buzzers

test spray

nyuchi (means 'bee' in Shona)

this is an image of the mbira 

that I made for myself recently

all june

all june, every year

test sprays on odd bits of cardboard

i've been making pictures again recently

"IF NOT YOU, WHO? 

   IF NOT NOW, WHEN?"

"SOUTHERN"

i'll be your tiger. lady,

if you want something striped, tonight

in the bed, beside you

"URSA MAJOR"

Ursa Major, why d'ja

stand on your tail

in the sky

when i'm walking 

the road up

towards ya?

"in the glory of the night time sky"